Plot

Eva Belter is caught in a photo leaving an illegal gambling club with a politician. Fearing she will be blackmailed, she asks Perry for help but she seems dishonest and tries to incriminate Perry. Her murdered husband is the blackmailer.

Eva Belter seeks Perry Mason's assistance when she learns that someone has photographed her leaving an illegal gambling club with well-known politician Harrison Burke. She's not using her real name and wants Perry to deal with Spicy Bits magazine who she fears will publish the photos. Perry sees through her ruse and agrees to represent her. He has his own reasons for disliking Spicy Bits - a client of his committed suicide a year ago after they ran a story on him - but even he is shocked when he learns that Eva is married to George Belter, who secretly owns the magazine. Eva is something of a flirt and certainly does her best to work her charms on Perry, much to Della Street's annoyance. When George Belter is found dead, Perry works to identify the killer, realizing that it may be his client.—garykmcd

Eva Belter (Patricia Barry) and Harrison Burke (James Philbrook) are kissing at a roadhouse when gunshots are heard and there's general panic. They escape through a ladies' room window and start to drive off. The way is blocked by a police car responding to the gun play, so Eva makes Burke hide under a blanket and concocts a lie about being a neighbor who urgently needs to get medicine for her ailing husband. It works. However, a photographer (Peter Leeds) saw them, and the next day he sells a grainy photo of their escape to Frank Locket (Harry Jackson), editor-publisher of Spicy Bits, a scandal magazine that's really a front for blackmail.

When Eva "Griffin" consults Perry, he shows her the headline "GANG SHOOTING EXPOSES GAMBLING" and agrees that a scandal could hurt Burke's promising political career. She says that she learned of Spicy Bits' threat through a friend who works in the same building. She has $700 to pay them off, and when Perry is reluctant to pay blackmail, she says her real worry is that she'll get a beating from her jealous husband. Perry agrees to help, and once Eva leaves he tells Della that he's interested in the case because a friend who committed suicide could have instead put his life in order if it hadn't been for Spicy Bits.

Perry meets Paul in a hotel lobby. There's a barbershop there where Locket is currently getting a haircut. Paul explains that he met with Locket and offered him the $700, but Locket couldn't make up his mind then or a little later. This indicates that Locket needs to get in touch with someone else - presumably the real owner of the magazine. Perry and Paul pull a trick to learn the phone number that Locket has to call, which ultimately sends Perry to the home of George Belter (Richard Webb). There, he brushes past Norma Vickers (Anna-Lisa), the housekeeper's daughter and threatens to expose him as the owner of the scandal sheet if the photo is printed. As they argue, Eva enters, so Perry learns that she and George are married. George orders his nephew Carl Griffin (Wynn Pearce) and housekeeper Mrs. Vickers (Virginia Gregg) to throw Perry out, but he leaves voluntarily.

In Perry's office, a sobbing Eva says she was too afraid to admit that her husband is the power behind Spicy Bits. He doesn't even pay Locket all that much to be the front man, because he has something on Locket. Perry replies that the thing she's really afraid of is that a scandal would ruin her chances of a good divorce settlement. Burke also visits Perry and says he'll raise the $20,000 that George now demands, because he loves Eva.

That night, Perry gets a call from Eva, who's at a payphone in the rain. She needs his help because George has been murdered. Perry drives to her and takes her back to her house. George is in the private bath of his bedroom, shot. Eva says she heard George arguing with a man, heard the shot, hid, and after the man left found the body and discovered the phone didn't work. Lights were out at the servants' house and Carl was away, so she grabbed a raincoat and ran about a mile to the payphone. She's still worried about Spicy Bits, until Perry points out that she now owns it. Carl drives up, obviously drunk and followed by a police car. This gives Perry the opportunity to report the murder. During the police investigation, Carl tells Lt. Anderson about the impending divorce. He reveals that George made a holographic will, cutting out Eva and leaving everything to Carl. Elsewhere in the house, Perry tries to get Eva to admit that it was Burke who she heard arguing with George. However, she says that it was Perry!

The next day, Eva shocks Della and Paul by producing the will that everyone has been looking for. She believes that it's a forgery. Perry has a handwriting expert (Paul Barselou) confirm that it is in fact a bad forgery. However, Paul learns from Locket that Carl has already shown a will to his lawyers. Apparently that will is quite convincing, as Carl is having no problem arranging credit based on his coming inheritance. Back in his office, Perry accuses Eva of trying to entangle him personally in the case. He recites a chain of evidence, including Norma having seen her writing on paper like the badly forged will, that makes her look guilty of murder. Eva admits to that and to having taken a shot at George, who was threatening her, then running off in a panic without looking at him. Andy enters and announces he found the gun outside the house. Eva assumes Norma helped with that, but Andy says she's no help, as she's been on cloud nine ever since she got engaged to Carl. Eva now realizes that Perry tricked her, and she slaps him.

At the Belter home, Eva relives what she saw and did the night of the murder. She's being truthful now, but Perry corrects her on a couple details. She forgot to mention that there was water underneath the raincoat she grabbed. Also, she meant to say that she left the gun in George's bedroom after shooting at him, and only said she left it outside because that's what others kept saying. Perry says that she could have missed and someone else entered later and used the gun to finish the job. Lt. Anderson points out that the only bullet found was the one in George, but Perry fires the gun into the bath and fishes out the bullet, as the real murderer could have done. With as much water as there was in the bath, the bullet could have slowed so much it didn't even leave a scratch. Regarding the identity of the murdered, Perry goes to Mrs. Vickers. He tells her she'll go to prison as an accomplice if she continues with her plan to protect Carl in exchange for him becoming Norma's rich husband. She's about to speak when Carl screams at her "Shut up!" He may as well confess.

Back at the office, Perry explains to Eva that after she ran off that night, Carl came back and got George to explain what happened. George even stood in the bath as he had done when Eva took her shot, making it easy for Carl to pick up the gun and do the same, but more accurately. Eva and Perry apologize to each other, she for her lies, he for the tricks he had to used to get the truth out of her. She gives Perry a kiss, then goes off with Burke. Perry tells Paul and Della that he'll be overseeing the dismantlement of Spicy Bits - as Eva's attorney.